1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology of extracting a specific area from image data and organizing list data of the extracted areas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In terms of improving work efficiency or facilitating document management, there exist various situations in which a person wants to generate a list of specific areas extracted from printed material. For example, after looking quickly at printed material and putting a mark thereon while doing proofreading, a person sometimes wants to think over a necessity for modifying some areas later. In this case, if it is possible to extract the marked areas only and organize a list thereof, proofreading can be performed accurately and efficiently. Further, when reading reference materials in order to write a thesis or the like, a person generally marks up an area (e.g., a portion considered important, a portion related to a theme of the thesis, a portion to be cited, etc.), that is, the area which he/she wants to refer to later. If extracting only the marked areas and organizing them into a list is made possible, the efficiency can improve in writing a document such as a thesis.
Further, it is more convenient if extracted areas are organized into a list of groups according to an element of the extracted areas instead of merely extracting each area from the printed material according to the order of markings thereon. In an example stated above, where areas related to one theme coexist with areas related to another theme in the original printed material, it is very convenient and efficient to review the extracted areas under different themes.
A structure is conventionally known in which a sentence adjacent to a mark is automatically extracted from among other annotation symbols (vertical bar, star mark (asterisk), circle, underline, highlight) inserted by a user.